Sorry its shit but meh :/

Chalice

They came.

The hunters, following us, the prey.

Furs wrapped, bedraggled across their monstrous bulk of bodies. Challenging us with eyes of steel. Their hands clasping iron and feelings of pure hatred.  That intrigued me.

What on this earth had made them hate us so?

I looked to my left, to him. His brow furrowed, his eyes black with foresight of the blood that will be spilled, the men that will be lost. I watched him clench his sword tightly then release it as if it were burning. He could feel my gaze and smiled weakly. For he knew of all people that I could understand how he felt. The drumming heart beat, the flight or fight adrenaline. He was leader, he could not run. Yet we both had our doubts. Was this fight worth lives? Would it bring peace or throw us into more peril?

My hands vibrated, hummed with comfort. I relaxed, uttering a soft sigh directed toward the man I loved. My friend, my brother, my King. I saw his frame untighten and begin to fill up with his normal great esteem. The men around him seeing their Kings new found confidence started beating their swords across their silver chests, building up the achieved vibe: that we could win.

Our King willed out words vocally challenging, speaking of freedom and fighting for those you loved, the respect that each man would be due for making such a sacrifice.

Women as well hid behind trees, bows in their grasp. He didn't know, but encourage them I did. She was there, I could feel her presence as I could his. Her with her hair plaited and braided down her slender back, by this appearance she could deceive the most careful and collected man with sword. Her fight was as good as any a man's.

It was almost time now, the pent up energy had reached its highest, the smell for blood was in each mans nose....but...wait.. among the opponents a figure emerges. Her with her betrayal, that has left its scares deep rooted into the hearts of those who loved her. The black lace shifted around her body as if alive with the power that she wort. To the front of the men she stood facing directly in front of him.

He drew the sword light hitting its magnificent body, he brought it upward, facing her, ready.

Laughter broke through from her mouth, black laughter that shivered through everyones spines, caressing and licking every bone, playfully biting the sides of others. The men from the north echoed her voice. Scare our men they did, and that is what they wanted. The falter in breath so confident now so frightened began to spread.

Her arms wide, as if in greeting, her mouth open, chanting words.

Fires burnt bodies with an infusion of the spoken language. Screams turning inward to mirth as the pain each person fell to the embrace of insanity.

Through the smoke that improved its intensity to choke me, I stumbled across bodies, falling into blank faces and cold eyes. Trying to miss a wound from a furred man, the men of bears. Finally I saw him.

On his knees, his lover behind him desperately pulling him up as survivors also began to help.

 In their haste they couldn't see her.

Swelling with the atmost poison. Coming towards them. Coming for him. Knife in her hand.

Plunging into his chest.

A foresight offering.

She was not yet there.

I gazed at the group of them, each one I loved. He although the most important, I loved them no less. She would kill them all in a trice.

With every passion of life I had, every single purpose I thought fate had chosen, finally I had chosen.

I raised my hands to my eyes, covered in blood although none had been spilt. Harnessed the power then used my body as a chalice as I walked further, to not stand beside them but in front of.

I spoke.

Spoke with images. Images of life. The simple days of when my mother held me close on cold nights, the day I arrived to what looked like a god forsaken place compared to home and met him. An naive young man who although had some importance, was arrogant and I was not then ready to die for.

Yet here I was dying for him.

Him and the future he would bring.

A lurching light crashed through my body, breaking bone, splintering shards through organs, tearing my body apart as I created the largest shield that any person of any race had seen, made up of light, and sacrifice.

For the one thing she never understood was sacrifice.

I looked at her face as my arms were wrenched with the power I beheld to be positioned upward above my head, it was a mixture of dread, and contorted anger, but....yes...confusion was there too against the features of the face that was once aspired to be the most beautiful across any land.

With a wave of a hand she vanished, leaving behind blood.

Blood that only I knew had come from her.

Not from any wound her outside body beheld but from her heart.

Blood running down her cheeks in sorrow.

Knowing there was nothing that she could possibly do now to atone for what she has done.

A.M.Dale 30/12/11